The brainchild of former interior decorator Pam Horsfield, Amanzi Guest House in Craighall Park is a super stylish owner-run guesthouse.

Choose from three cottages and four apartments all set up for self-catering, with fully equipped kitchens. Each has a private garden and if you are travelling with pets the two cottages with walled gardens are ideal.

Each apartment comes with an oven, fridge, crockery and cutlery and additional equipment like a steamer or blender available on request.

A qualified teacher Pam Horsfield ran a decorating business in Hyde Park Corner for ten years and during this time built two additional rooms onto her home to manufacture goods like curtains and furniture. After noticing a gap in the market for self-catering accommodation suited to families, she decided to transform the two rooms into fully-equipped cottages and so Amanzi Guest House was born.

Further expansion followed, with Pam Horsfield using her talents in interior design to rethink her 1950s family home into a modern space. The entire roof was lifted off to add new light-filled loft-style apartments with airy, spacious rooms supported by open beams and wide windows.

Every detail of the guesthouse bears her distinctive personal touch; the guesthouse name Amanzi (the Zulu word for water) references her home province KwaZulu-Natal and each cottage and apartment is individually decorated with unique pieces of local art sourced from across the country such as Venda pottery or African beaded hares.

Lush gardens surround the guesthouse, often visited by a variety of birds, and the impressive deck that overlooks the salt-water swimming pool doubles as an entertainment area where Pam Horsfield and her husband, Rob, will often end the day with guests over a braai.

Pam Horsfield prides herself on her attention to her guests; “It’s what you do in a guesthouse, you go above and beyond to make sure the guests are happy”. She recounts one of her strangest requests coming from a guest who arrived with a car full of flowers for a wedding the next day and needed to keep them fresh. Pam Horsfield deftly arranged to have them kept cool overnight in the local grocery shop’s fridges.

Your stay includes a full English-style breakfast cooked to order or opt for the homemade health muesli with organic oats, cranberries and nuts and freshly baked bread made daily by resident chef Thabang.

Craighall Park is ideally located between ​the business districts of Rosebank and Sandton (from where you can catch a train straight to the airport) and there are plenty of lovely cafes and restaurants to enjoy nearby.

Amanzi Guest House is a member of the Johannesburg Guesthouses network, which offers an excellent range of more than 20 owner-run guesthouses all based in and around the beautiful northern suburbs of Rosebank and The Parks. See the booking website johannesburg-guesthouses.co.za for the full range of options.